James B. Rule
Title: Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Tel: (510)601-1968
e-mail: James.Rule@sunysb.edu

James B. Rule was born in San Jose, California in 1943 and was educated at UC Berkeley, Brandeis University, and Harvard, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1969.

He has held research and teaching positions at MIT; Nuffield College, Oxford; the Université de Bordeaux; Clare Hall, Cambridge; and the State University of New York Stony Brook.   In January, 2007 he became Distinguished Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society at UC Berkeley.

In addition to these appointments, he has held year-long fellowships from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford; the J.S. Guggenheim Foundation; the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; and the Russell Sage Foundation.

His first solely-authored book, Private Lives and Public Surveillance (1973), was co-winner of the C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems.   Since then, he has continued to carry out research and write on subjects relating to privacy, technology, and the social role of information.  

He is also author or co-author of seven other books and monographs on diverse subjects.    Insight and Social Betterment (Oxford University Press, 1980), for example, analyzes the role of social inquiry in the improvement of social conditions.   Theories of Civil Violence (University of California Press, 1988) and Theory and Progress in Social Science (Cambridge University Press, 1997) deal with growth and cumulation in knowledge of the social world.   

His latest book is Privacy in Peril; How we are Sacrificing a Fundamental Right in Exchange for Security and Convenience (Oxford University Press, 2007).   This work examines both the forces underling ever-widening collection of and use of personal data by government and private institutions, and the measures adopted around the world to protect people’s interests in use of “their” data.

He continues to do research and writing on the changing social roles of information, particularly personal information.    His most recent article is “The Once and Future Information Society,” with Yasemin Besen, forthcoming in Theory and Society. 

In addition to his strictly scholarly work, James Rule enjoys writing for non-specialist audiences.   He has done articles, reviews and Op-Eds for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, The Washington Monthly, and other publications.   He is a frequent contributor to the political quarterly Dissent, on whose editorial board he serves.

Education:
A.B. Brandeis University, Psychology, (1964)
Ph.D. Harvard, Sociology, (1969)